498 CARTILAGE. 



sac, and, in some instances, distinctly outside appearance on the prepuce of an old man, who 

 it. Laennec often found them between the had had phymosis from the time of birth, 

 tunica vaginalis testis and the tunica albuginea, What is the cause of these formations ? 

 and on one occasion in the lining membrane Most probably they have their commencement 

 of the lateral ventricles of the brain. Andral in some obscure inflammatory action. It is 

 saw three of these bodies in the serous mem- true we often find them where there is no other 

 brane of the brain ; one of them floated loose appreciable lesion whatsoever, nor any trace of 

 and unattached in the sac of the arachnoid ; inflammation in the neighbourhood ; but, on 

 the other two were attached to the choroid the other hand, they seem to be but a step re- 

 plexus by a delicate cellulo-vascular prolonga- moved, in structure, from coagulable lymph, 

 tion. He also often found them in the peri- and are sometimes imbedded in it; and the 

 toneum, sometimes perfectly isolated, at other irritation and consequent inflammation pro- 

 times appended to the serous membrane.* duced by foreign bodies must be allowed to 

 2. Accidental cartilages of incrustation, have occasioned them in the instances just 

 occurring in plates, are very irregular in size related from Bichat and Beclard. 

 and shape. They are most frequently found in 3. The irregular or amorphous masses 

 fibro-serous membranes, as the dura mater, the which we sometimes see in the thyroid gland, 

 pericardium, and the immediate coverings of ovaries, uterus, testes, brain, liver, lungs, 

 the testis and spleen. Upon this last viscus spleen, kidneys, and heart, are supposed to 

 they are seen more frequently than in any other differ from the preceding classes, not only in 

 situation whatsoever. Bichat supposed they form, but in connexions and origin. They 

 were altered portions of the fibrous membrane, appear to be united by continuity of substance 

 having so generally met with them where the with the tissues in which they are developed, 

 latter existed. The subserous cellular tissue is and, in fact, to be altered portions of them. But 

 the proper seat of them. We often find them it is by no means proved that cellular tissue 

 between the middle and internal coats of ar- may not, even in these cases, be the nidus of 

 teries, in what may likewise be called a sub- such concretions, and that the organs have not 

 serous cellular tissue. (See ARTERY.) rather been absorbed to make room for them, 



It is exceedingly rare to meet with them than transformed into them, 

 under mucous membranes. Andral saw one In false articulations, old cicatrices of the liver, 

 solitary instance of a true cartilaginous mass lungs, &c., we find a substance resembling car- 

 developed in the submucous cellular tissue of tilage ; but its description belongs to " Fibro- 

 the stomach. The subcutaneous cellular sub- cartilage^ to which we refer, 

 stance is likewise nearly exempt from them; Chemical composition. On this subject there 

 but the same experienced pathologist relates, is some difference among writers ; Dr. Davy* 

 that one of the lower extremities of a woman found diarthrodial cartilage to consist of 



who died in La Charite, in the year 1820, was Albumen 44*5 



affected with elephantiasis ; underneath the Water ,.. 55-0 



skin, and occupying the place of the muscles, Phosphate of lime 00 5 



which were reduced to a few pale fibres, was 

 found an enormous mass of condensed hard 



cellular tissue, possessing, in many places, all Berzelius professes his ignorance of its com- 



the physical characters of cartilage. In all position. Neither diarthrodial nor non-articular 



these instances there is every reason to believe, cartilage yielded gelatine, and he doubts " whe- 



from the closest examination, that the newly ther the mass which constitutes them be of a 



formed substance is developed at the expense peculiar nature, or similar to what we find in 



of the cellular tissue alone, and that neither the fibrous coat of arteries." f By boiling 



the fibrous nor the serous membranes are al- costal and synarthrodial cartilages, gelatine is 



tered, nor indeed any adjoining texture. These developed. He looks on them to be imperfectly 



last seem to be replaced by the accidental for- developed bone, and to have the composition of 



mation, but they are only absorbed to make its animal part, with the addition of 3'402 per 



room for it, and not transformed into the new cent of earth in the false ribs of a man of 



substance. An exception must, perhaps, be twenty. 



made in favour of mucous membrane, which In 100 parts of this earth he gives the fol- 



appears capable of undergoing this change, lowing analysis from Frommherz and Gugert : 

 Laennec relates the case of a child, in the Carbonate of soda .... 35068 



membranous portion of whose urethra he Sulphate of soda 24-241 



found a large calculus. The mucous mem- Muriate of soda .' 8-231 



brane of the part presented several patches, of Phosphate of soda 0-925 



the size and thickness of a man's nail, which Sulphate of potass .... 1-200 



appeared to him semi-cartilaginous, and were Carbonate of lime .... 18-372 



incorporated with, and formed part of, the Phosphate of lime 4-056 



mucous membrane. In like manner Beclard Phosphate of magnesia . 6-908 



found the mucous membrane of the vagina, in Oxyde of iron, and loss . 0-999 



a case of prolapsus uteri, studded over with 

 cartilaginous spots ; and he observed a similar 100-000 



Andral's Pathological Anatomy, translated by * Monro's Elements of Anatomy, vol i. 

 Townsend and West. t Traite de Chimie, torn. vii. Par. 1833. 



